Tuesday, November 23, 2010

An all-directions reform of our health care system--so that every citizen will be able to get quality health care at reasonable cost regardless of income and regardless of area of residence--remains an item of highest priority on my unfinished agenda for America in the 1970s.

In the ultimate sense, the general good health of our people is the foundation of our national strength, as well as being the truest wealth that individuals can possess.
Nothing should impede us from doing whatever is necessary to bring the best possible health care to those who do not now have it--while improving health care quality for everyone--at the earliest possible time.

In 1971, I submitted to the Congress my new National Health Strategy which would produce the kind of health care Americans desire and deserve, at costs we all can afford.

Since that time, a great national debate over health care has taken place. And both branches of the Congress have conducted searching examinations of our health needs, receiving and studying testimony from all segments of our society.
The Congress has acted on measures advancing certain parts of my National Health Strategy:
--The Comprehensive Health Manpower Training Act of 1971 and the Nurse Training Act of 1971, which I signed last November, will spur the greatest effort in our history to expand the supply of health personnel. Additionally and importantly, it will attract them to the areas of health care shortages, helping to close one of the most glaring gaps in our present system.

--The Congress also passed the National Cancer Act which I proposed last year. This action opens the way for a high-intensity effort to defeat the No. 2 killer and disabler of our time, an effort fueled by an additional $100 million in the last year. A total of $430 million is budgeted for cancer programs in fiscal year 1973, compared to $185 million in fiscal year 1969.
--The Congress responded to my statement of early 1970 on needed improvements in veterans medical care by authorizing increased funds in 1971 and 1972, increases which have brought the V^ hospital-to-patient ratios to an all-time high and have provided many additional specialty and medical services, including increased medical manpower training.
--The Congress also created a National Health Service Corps of young professionals to serve the many rural areas and inner city neighborhoods which are critically short on health care. By mid-summer, more than 100 communities around the Nation will be benefiting from these teams.
These are important steps, without doubt, but we still must lay the bedrock foundations for a new national health care system for all our people.
The need for action is critical for far too many of our citizens.

The time for action is now.

I therefore again urge the Congress to act on the many parts of my health care program which are still pending so that we can end--at the earliest possible time-the individual anguishes, the needless neglects and the family financial fears caused by the gaps, inequities and maldistributions of the present system.
The United States now spends more than $75 billion annually on health care--and for most people, relatively good service results.
Yet, despite this huge annual national outlay, millions of citizens do not have adequate access to health care. Our record in this field does not live up to our national potential.

That sobering fact should summon us to prompt but effective action to reform and reorganize health care practices, while simultaneously resisting the relentless inflation of health care costs.
MORE THAN MONEY IS NEEDED
When the subject of health care improvements is mentioned, as is the case with so many other problems, too many people and too many institutions think first and solely of money--bills, payments, premiums, converges, grants, subsidies and appropriations.
But far more than money is involved in our current health care crisis.
More money is important--but any attempted health care solution based primarily on money is simply not going to do the job.
In health care as in so many other areas, the most expensive remedy is not necessarily the most effective one.
One basic shortcoming of a solution to health care problems which depends entirely on spending more money, can be seen in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare and Medicaid did deliver needed dollars to the health care problems of the elderly and the poor. But at the same time, little was done to alter the existing supply and distribution of doctors, nurses, hospitals and other health resources. Our health care supply, in short, remained largely the same while massive new demands were loaded onto it.
The predictable result was an acute price inflation, one basic cause of our health economic quandary of the past 11 years.
In this period, national health expenditures rose by 188 percent, from $26 billion in fiscal 1960 to $75 billion in fiscal 1971. But a large part of this enormous increase in the Nation's health expenditure went, not for more and better health care, but merely to meet price inflation.
If we do not lessen this trend, all other reform efforts may be in vain.
That is why my National Health Strategy was designed with built-in incentives to encourage sensible economies--in the use of health facilities, in direct cost-control procedures, and through more efficient ways to bring health care to people at the community level. That is also why we have given careful attention to medical prices in Phase II of the Economic Stabilization Program.
Several months ago, the Price Commission ruled that increases in physician fees must be kept to within 2 1/2 percent. Rules also were issued to hold down runaway price increases among hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions. All of these efforts were directed toward our goal of reducing the previous 7.7 percent annual price increase in total health care costs to half of that level, 3.85 percent this year.
These actions should buy us some time. But they are, at best, a temporary tourniquet on health care price inflation.
We must now direct our energies, attentions and action to the long-range factors affecting the cost, the quality and the availability of medical care.

My overall program, of course, is one that would improve health care for everyone. But it is worthy of special note that these recommendations have a particular importance and a high value for older Americans, whose health care needs usually rise just as their incomes are declining.
WE SHOULD BUILD ON PRESENT

STRENGTHS

When we examine the status of health care in America, we always must be careful to recognize its strengths. For most Americans, more care of higher quality has been the result of our rising national investment in health, both governmental and private.
We lead the world in medical science, research and development. We have obliterated some major diseases and drastically reduced the incidence of others. New institutions, new treatments and new drugs abound. There has been a marked and steady gain in the number of people covered by some form of health insurance to 84 percent of those under 65, and coverages have been expanding. Life expectancy has risen by 3.4 percent since 1950 and the maternal death rate has declined 66 percent. Days lost from work in the same period are down 3.5 percent and days lost from school have declined 7.5 percent--both excellent measures of the general good state of our health.

All of this is progress--real progress. It would be folly to raze the structure that produced this progress--and start from scratch on some entirely new basis-in order to repair shortcomings and redirect and revitalize the thrust of our health system.
To nationalize health care as some have proposed, and thus federalize medical personnel, institutions and procedures-eventually if not at the start-also would amount to a stunning new financial burden for every American taxpayer.
The average household would pay more than $1,000 a year as its share of the required new Federal expenditure of more than $80 billion each and every year. Such a massive new Federal budget item would run counter to the temper of the American taxpayer.
Also, such a massive new Federal budget item would run counter to the efforts of this Administration to decentralize programs and revenues, rather than bring new responsibilities to Washington.
And, finally, such a massive new Federal budget requirement would dim our efforts to bring needed Federal actions in many new areas--some of which bear directly on health, such as environmental protection.
Clearly we must find a better answer to the deficiencies in our health care system. Unfortunately, such deficiencies are not difficult to identify:
--In inner cities and in many rural areas, there is an acute shortage of physicians. Health screening under various government programs has found that appalling percentages of young people, mostly from deprived areas, have not seen a doctor since early childhood, have never seen a dentist and have never received any preventive care.
--General practitioners are scarce in many areas and many people, regardless of income or location, have difficulty obtaining needed medical attention on short notice.

--Our medical schools must turn away qualified applicants.

--While we emphasize preventive maintenance for our automobiles and appliances, we do not do the same for our bodies. The private health insurance system, good as it is, operates largely as standby emergency equipment, not coming into use until we are stricken and admitted to the most expensive facility, a hospital.
--Relative affluence is no ultimate protection against health care costs. A single catastrophic illness can wipe out the financial security of almost any family under most present health insurance policies.
To remedy these problems, however, will require far more than the efforts of the Federal Government--although the Federal role is vital and will be met by this Administration.
It is going to take the complementing efforts of many other units, of government at the State and local levels; of educational and health organizations and institutions of all kinds; of physicians and other medical personnel of all varieties; of private enterprise and of individual citizens.
My National Health Strategy is designed to enlist all those creative talents into a truly national effort, coordinated but not regimented by four guiding principles:
Capitalizing on existing strengths: We resolve to preserve the best in our existing health care system, building upon those strong elements the new programs needed to correct existing deficiencies.

Equal access for all to health care: We must do all we can to end any racial, economic, social or geographical barriers which may prevent any citizen from obtaining adequate health protection.
Balanced supply and demand: It makes little sense to expand the demand for health care without also making certain that proper increases take place in the numbers of available physicians and other medical personnel, in hospitals and in other kinds of medical facilities.
Efficient organization: We must bring basic reorganizations to our health care system so that we can cease reinforcing inequities and relying on inefficiencies. The exact same system which has failed us in many cases in the past certainly will not be able to serve properly the increased demands of the future.
MAJOR ACTIONS AWAITED
Three major programs, now awaiting action in the Congress after substantial hearings and study, would give life to these principles.

PARTNERSHIP ACT
This proposal for a comprehensive national health insurance program, in which the public and private sector would join, would guarantee that no American family would have to forego needed medical attention because of inability to pay.
My plan would fill gaps in our present health insurance coverage. But, beyond that, it would redirect our entire system to better and more efficient ways of bringing health care to our people.
There are two critical parts of this Act:

1. The National Health Insurance Standards Act would require employers to provide adequate health insurance for their employees, who would share in underwriting its costs. This approach follows precedents of long-standing under which personal security--and thus national economic progress--has been enhanced by requiring employers to provide minimum wages and disability and retirement benefits and to observe occupational health and safety standards.

Required coverages would include not less than $50,000 protection against catastrophic costs for each family member; hospital services; physician services both in and out of a hospital; maternity care; well-baby care (including immunizations); laboratory expenses and certain other costs.

The proposed package would include certain deductibles and coinsurance features, which would help keep costs down by encouraging the use of more efficient health care procedures.

It would permit many workers, as an alternative to paying separate fees for services, to purchase instead memberships in a Health Maintenance Organization. The fact that workers and unions would have a direct economic stake in the program would serve as an additional built-in incentive for avoiding unnecessary costs and yet maintaining high quality.

The national standards prescribed, moreover, would necessarily limit the range within which benefits could vary. This provision would serve to sharpen competition and cost-consciousness among insurance companies seeking to provide coverage at the lowest overall cost.

Any time the Federal Government, in effect, prescribes and guarantees certain things it must take the necessary follow-through steps to assure that the interests of consumers and taxpayers are fully protected.

Accordingly, legislative proposals have been submitted to the Congress within recent weeks for regulating private health insurance companies, in order to assure that they can and will do the job, and that insurance will be offered at reasonable rates. In addition, States would be required to provide group-rate coverage for people such as the self-employed and special groups who do not qualify for other plans.

2. Another vital step in my proposed program is the Family Health Insurance Plan (FHIP) which would meet the needs of poor families not covered by the National Health Insurance Standards Act because they are headed by unemployed or self-employed persons whose income is below certain levels. For a family of four, the ceiling for eligibility would be an annual income of $5,000. FHIP would replace that portion of Medicaid designed to help such families. Medicaid would remain for the aged poor, the blind, the disabled and some children.

HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS

Beyond filling gaps in insurance coverage, we must also turn our attention to how the money thus provided will be spent---on what kind of services and in what kind of institutions. This is why the Health Maintenance Organization concept is such a central feature of my National Health Strategy.

The HMO is a method for financing and providing health care that has won growing respect. It brings together into a single organization the physician, the hospital, the laboratory and the clinic, so that patients can get the right care at the right moment.

HMO's utilize a method of payment that encourages the prevention of illness and promotes the efficient use of doctors and hospitals. Unlike traditional fee-for-service billing, the HMO contracts to provide its comprehensive care for a fixed annual sum that is determined in advance.

Under this financial arrangement, the doctors' and hospitals' incomes are determined not by how much the patient is sick, but by how much he is well. HMO's thus have the strongest possible incentive for keeping well members from becoming ill and for curing sick members as quickly as possible.

I do not believe that HMO's should or will entirely replace fee-for-service financing. But I do believe that they ought to be everywhere available so that families will have a choice between these methods. The HMO is no mere drawing-board concept--more than 7 million Americans are now HMO subscribers and that number is growing.

Several pieces of major legislation now before the Congress would give powerful stimulus to the development of HMO's:

1. The Health Maintenance Organization Assistance Act would provide technical and financial aid to help new HMO's get started, and would spell out standards of operation;

2. The National Health Insurance Partnership Act described above requires that individuals be given a choice between fee-for-service or HMO payment plans;

3. H.R. I contains one provision allowing HMO-type reimbursement for Medicare patients and another that would increase the Federal share of payments made to HMO's under State Medicaid programs.

I urge that the Congress give early consideration to these three measures, in order to hasten the development of this efficient method for low-cost, one-stop health service. Meantime, the Administration has moved forward in this area on its own under existing legislative authorities.

Last year, while HMO legislation was being prepared, I directed the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to focus existing funds and staff on an early HMO development effort. This effort has already achieved payoffs:

To date, 110 planning and development grants and contracts have been let to potential HMO sponsors and some 200,000 Medicaid patients are now enrolled in HMO-type plans. Also, in a few months, 10 Family Health Centers will be operating with federally-supported funds to provide prepaid health care to persons living in underserved areas. Each of these Centers can develop into a full-service HMO. I have requested funds in 1973 to expand this support.

To keep this momentum going, I have included in the fiscal year 1972 supplemental budget $27 million for HMO development, and requested $60 million for this purpose in fiscal year 1973.

I will also propose amendments to the pending HMO Assistance Act that would authorize the establishment of an HMO loan fund.

THE NATIONAL NEED FOR H.R. I

One of the greatest hazards to life and health is poverty. Death and illness rates among the poor are many times those for the rest of the Nation. The steady elimination of poverty would in itself improve the health of millions of Americans.

H.R. 1'S main purpose is to help people lift themselves free of poverty's grip by providing them with jobs, job training, income supplements for the working poor and child care centers for mothers seeking work.

For this reason alone, enactment of H.R. I must be considered centerpiece legislation in the building of a National Health Strategy.

But H.R. 1 also includes the following measures to extend health care to more Americans--especially older Americans-and to control costs:

Additional Persons Covered:

--Persons eligible for Part A of Medicare (hospital care) would be automatically enrolled in Part B (physician's care).

--Medicare (both Parts A and B) would be extended to many disabled persons not now covered.

H.R. I as it now stands, however, would still require monthly premium payments to cover the costs of Part B. I have recommended that the Congress eliminate this $5.80 monthly premium payment and finance Medicare coverage of physician services through the social security payroll tax. This can be done within the Medicare tax rate now included in H.R.i. If enacted, this change would save $1.5 billion annually for older Americans and would be equivalent to a 5 percent increase in social security cash benefits.

Cost Control Features:

--Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement would be denied any hospital or other institution for interest, depreciation and service charges on any construction disapproved by local or regional health planning agencies. Moreover, to strengthen local and regional health planning agencies, my fiscal year 1973 budget would increase the Federal matching share. In addition, grants to establish 100 new local and 20 new State planning agencies would bring health planning to more than 80 percent of the Nation's population.

--Reviews of claim samples and utilization patterns, which have saved much money in the Medicare program, would be applied to Medicaid.

--The efficiency of Medicaid hospitals and health facilities would be improved by testing various alternative methods of reimbursing them.

--Cost sharing would be introduced after 30 days of hospitalization under Medicare.

--Federal Medicaid matching rates would decline one-third after the first 60 days of care.

--Federal Medicaid matching rates would be increased 25 percent for services for which the States contract with HMO's or other comprehensive health care facilities.

These latter three revisions are aimed at minimizing inefficient institutional care and encouraging more effective modes of treatment.

RESEARCH AND PREVENTION PROGRAMS

My overall health program encompasses actions on three levels: 1) improving protection against health care costs; 2) improving the health care system itself; and 3) working creatively on research and prevention efforts, to eradicate health menaces and to hold down the incidence of illnesses.

A truly effective national health strategy requires that a significant share of Federal research funds be concentrated on major health threats, particularly when research advances indicate the possibility of breakthrough progress.

Potentially high payoff health research and prevention programs include:

HEART DISEASE

If current rates of incidence continue, some 12 million Americans will suffer heart attacks in the next 10 years.

I shortly will assign a panel of distinguished professional experts to guide us in determining why heart disease is so prevalent and what we should be doing to combat it.1 In the meantime, the fiscal year 1973 budget provides funds for exploring:

1On March 24, 1972, the President announced that he had asked Dr. John S. Millis, president and director of the National Fund for Medical Education, to head the Advisory Panel on Heart Disease. A White House announcement of the membership of the Panel was released on April 4 and is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 8, p. 724).

--the development of new medical devices to assist blood circulation and improved instruments for the early detection of heart disease; and

--tests to explore the relationship of such high-risk factors as smoking, high blood pressure and high blood fats to the onset and progression of heart disease.

CANCER

The National Cancer Act I signed into law December 23, 1971, creates the authority for organizing an all-out attack on this dread disease. The new cancer program it creates will be directly responsive to the President's direction.

This new program's work will be given further momentum by nay decision last October to convert the former biological warfare facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland into a cancer research center.

To finance this all-out research effort, I have requested that an additional $93 million be allocated for cancer research in fiscal year 1973, bringing the total funding available that year to $430 million.

In the past two and one-half years, we have more than doubled the funding for cancer research, reflecting this Administration's strong commitment to defeat this dread killer as soon as humanly possible.

ALCOHOLISM

One tragic and costly illness which touches every community in our land is alcoholism. There are more than 9 million alcoholics and alcohol abusers in our Nation.

The human cost of this condition is incalculable--broken homes, broken lives and the tragedy of 28,000 victims of alcohol-related highway deaths every year.

The recently established National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism will soon launch an intensive public education program through television and radio and will continue to support model treatment projects from which States and communities will be able to pattern programs to fight this enemy.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Department of Transportation are funding projects in 35 States to demonstrate the value of highway safety, enforcement and education efforts among drinking drivers. The Veterans Administration will increase the number of its Alcohol Dependence Treatment Units by more than one-third, to 56 units in fiscal year 1973.

DRUG ABUSE

Drug abuse now constitutes a national emergency.

In response to this threat and to the need for coordination of Federal programs aimed at drug abuse, I established the Special Action office for Drug Abuse Prevention within the Executive office of the President. Its special areas of action are programs for treating and rehabilitating the drug abuser and for alerting our young people to the dangers of drug abuse.

I have proposed legislation to the Congress which would extend and clarify the authority of this office. I am hopeful that Senate and House conferees will soon be able to resolve differences in the versions passed by the two branches and emerge with a single bill responsive to the Nation's needs.

The new Special Action office, however, has not been idly awaiting this legislation. It has been vigorously setting about the task of identifying the areas of greatest need and channelling Federal resources into these areas.

The Department of Defense, for example, working in close coordination with the Special Action office, has instituted drug abuse identification, education, and treatment programs which effectively combatted last year's heroin problem among our troops in South Vietnam. Indications are that the corner has been turned on this threat and that the incidence of drug dependence among our troops is declining.

The Veterans Administration, again in coordination with the Special Action Office, has accomplished more than a six-fold increase in the number of drug dependency treatment centers in fiscal year 1972, with an increase to 44 centers proposed in fiscal year 1973.

In fiscal year 1972, I have increased funds available for the prevention of drug abuse by more than 130 percent. For fiscal year 1973, I have requested over $365 million to treat the drug abuser and prevent the spread of the affliction of drug abuse.

This is more than eight times as much as was being spent for this purpose when this Administration took office.

SICKLE CELL DISEASE

About one out of every 500 black infants falls victim to the painful, life-shortening disease called sickle cell anemia. This inherited disease trait is carried by about two million black Americans.

In fiscal year 1972, $10 million was allocated to attack this problem and an advisory committee of prominent black leaders was organized to help direct the effort. This committee's recommendations are in hand and an aggressive action program is ready to start.

To underwrite this effort, I am proposing to increase the new budget for sickle cell disease from $10 million in fiscal 1972 to $15 million in fiscal 1973.

The Veterans Administration's medical care system also can be counted on to make an important contribution to the fight against sickle cell anemia.

Eight separate research projects concerning sickle cell anemia are underway in VA hospitals and more will be started this year. All 166 VA hospitals will launch a broad screening, treatment and educational effort to combat this disease.

On any given day, about 17,000 black veterans are in VA hospitals and some 116, 000 are treated annually.

All these expanded efforts will lead to a better and longer life for thousands of black Americans.

FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES

Nearly three years ago, I called for a program that would provide family planning services to all who wanted them but could not afford their cost. The timetable for achieving this goal was five years.

To meet that schedule, funding for services administered by the National Center for Family Planning for this program has been steadily increased from $39 million in fiscal year 1971 to $91 million in fiscal year 1972. I am requesting $139 million for this Center in fiscal year 1973.

Total Federal support for family planning services and research in fiscal 1973 will rise to $240 million, a threefold increase since fiscal year 1969.

VENEREAL DISEASE

Last year, more than 2.5 million venereal disease cases were detected in the United States. Two-thirds of the victims were under 25.

A concentrated program to rind persons with infectious cases and treat them is needed to bring this disease under control. I am, therefore, recommending that $31 million be allocated for this purpose in fiscal year 1973, more than two and one-half times the level of support for VD programs in 1971.

HEALTH EDUCATION

Aside from form treatment programs, public and private, the general health of individuals depends very much on their own informed actions and practices.

Last year, I proposed that a National Health Education Foundation be established to coordinate a nationwide program to alert people on ways in which they could protect their own health. Since that time, a number of public meetings have been held by a committee I established then to gather views on all aspects of health education.2 The report of this committee will be sent to me this year.

2 President's Committee on Health Education.

The committee hopes to define more explicitly the Nation's need for health education programs and to determine ways of rallying all the resources of our society to meet this need.

CONSUMER SAFETY

More than a half century has passed since basic legislation was enacted to ensure the safety of the foods and drugs which Americans consume. Since then, industrial and agricultural revolutions have generated an endless variety of new products, food additives, industrial compounds, cosmetics, synthetic fabrics and other materials which are employed to feed, clothe, medicate and adorn the American consumer.

These revolutions created an entirely new man-made environment--and we must make absolutely certain that this new environment does not bring harmful side effects which outweigh its evident benefits.

The only way to ensure that goal is met is to give the agency charged with that responsibility the resources it needs to meet the challenge.

My budget request for the Food and Drug Administration for fiscal year 1973 represents the largest single-year expansion in the history of this agency--70 percent. I believe this expansion is amply justified by the magnitude of the task this agency faces.

In the past year, the foundations for a modern program of consumer protection have been laid. The FDA has begun a detailed review of the thousands of nonprescription drug products now marketed. The pharmaceutical industry has been asked to cooperate in compiling a complete inventory of every drug available to the consumer.

Meanwhile, I have proposed the following legislation to ensure more effective protection for consumers:

--A wholesome fish and fish products bill which provides for the expansion of inspections of fish handlers and greater authority to assure the safety of fish products.

--A Consumer Product Safety bill which would authorize the Federal Government to establish and enforce new standards for product safety.

--Medical device legislation which would not only authorize the establishment of safety standards for these products, but would also provide for premarketing scientific review when warranted.

--A drug identification bill now before the Congress would provide a method for quickly and accurately identifying any pill or tablet. This provision would reduce the risk of error in taking medicines and allow prompt treatment following accidental ingestion.

--The Toxic Substances Control Act that I proposed last year also awaits action by the Congress. This legislation would require any company developing a new chemical that may see widespread use to test it thoroughly beforehand for possible toxic effects.

NURSING HOMES

If there is one place to begin upgrading the quality of health care, it is in the nursing homes that care for older Americans. Many homes provide excellent care and concern, but far too many others are callous, understaffed, unsanitary and downright dangerous.

Last August I announced an eight-point program to upgrade the quality of life and the standards of care in American nursing homes. The Federal interest and responsibility in this field is clear, since Federal programs including Medicare and Medicaid provide some 40 percent of total nursing home income nationally.

That HEW effort is well underway now.

Federal field teams have surveyed every State nursing home inspection program, and as a result 38 of 39 States found to have deficiencies have corrected them. The 39th is acting to meet Federal standards. To help States upgrade nursing homes, I have proposed legislation to pay 100 percent of the costs of inspecting these facilities.

Meanwhile, at my direction, a Federally-funded program to train 2,000 State nursing home inspectors and to train 41,000 nursing home employees is also underway. The Federal field force for assisting nursing homes is being augmented and fire, safety and health codes have been strengthened.

One way to measure the results of these efforts is to learn how patients in nursing homes feel about the care they are given. We have therefore also begun a program to monitor the complaints and suggestions of nursing home residents.

APPLYING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In my State of the Union message, I proposed a new Federal partnership with the private sector to stimulate civilian technological research and development. One of the most vital areas where we can focus this partnership--perhaps utilizing engineers and scientists displaced from other jobs--is in improving human health. Opportunities in this field include:

1. Emergency Medical Services: By using new technologies to improve emergency care systems and by using more and better trained people to run those systems, we can save the lives of many heart attack victims and many victims of auto accidents every year. The loss to the Nation represented by these unnecessary deaths cannot be calculated. I have already allocated $8 million in fiscal year 1972 to develop model systems and training programs and my budget proposes that $15 million be invested for additional demonstrations in fiscal year 1973.

2. Blood: Blood is a unique national resource. An adequate system for collecting and delivering blood at its time and place of need can save many lives. Yet we do not have a nationwide system to meet this need and we need to draw upon the skills of modern management and technology to develop one. I have therefore directed the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to make an intensive study and to recommend to me as soon as possible a plan for developing a safe, fast and efficient nationwide blood collection and distribution system.

3. Health Information Systems: Each physician, hospital and clinic today is virtually an information island unto itself. Records and billings are not kept on the same basis everywhere, laboratory tests are often needlessly repeated and vital patient data can get lost. All of these problems have been accentuated because our population is so constantly on the move. The technology exists to end this chaos and improve the quality of care. I have therefore asked the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to plan a series of projects to demonstrate the feasibility of developing integrated and uniform systems of health information.

4. Handicapping Conditions: In America today there are half a million blind, 850,000 deaf and 15 million suffering paralysis and loss of limbs. So far, the major responses to their need to gain self-sufficiency, have been vocational rehabilitation and welfare programs. Now the skills that took us to the moon and back need to be put to work developing devices to help the blind see, the deaf hear and the crippled move.

TOWARD A BETTER HEALTH CARE

SYSTEM

Working together, this Administration and the Congress already have taken some significant strides in our mutual determination to provide the best, and the most widely available, health care system the world has ever known.

The time now has come to take the final steps to reorganize, to revitalize and to redirect American health care--to build on its historic accomplishments, to close its gaps and to provide it with the incentives and sustenance to move toward a more perfect mission of human compassion.

I believe that the health care resources of America in 1972, if strengthened and expanded as I have proposed in this Message, will be more than sufficient to move us significantly toward that great goal.

If the Administration and the Congress continue to act together--and act on the major proposals this year, as I strongly again urge--then the 1970s will be remembered as an era in which the United States took the historic step of making the health of the entire population not only a great goal but a practical objective.

On the same day, the White House released a fact sheet and the transcript of a news briefing on the message. The news briefing was held by Dr. Merlin K. DuVal, Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for Health and Scientific Affairs.

Friday, November 19, 2010

I received this email this morning. Normally, I would not pass this along or forward it, but this seems to be a legitimate message, and represents something that should be commonplace among all employers in the US!

I applaud this message and everything it represents!

I also checked the Snopes reference, and while it is from 2003, it was updated in 2008.

Here is the entire email I received!

BTW - did you know Sears provides a LIFETIME warranty on all their tools? Not too shabby!

Sears - Christmas shopping this year.

I know I needed this reminder, since Sears isn't always my first choice. It's amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and Sears hasn't withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement & feedback it well deserves.

Pass it on.

I decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn

Sears Customer Care

webcenter@sears.com

1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER

Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned. And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back, and take the following multiple choice test.

These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?

HERE'S THE TEST

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:

a. Superman

b. Jay Leno

c. Harry Potter

d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:

a. Olga Corbett

b. Sitting Bull

c. Arnold Schwarzenegger

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:

a. Lost Norwegians

b. Elvis

c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:

a. John Dillinger

b. The King of Sweden

c. The Boy Scouts

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:

a. A pizza delivery boy

b. Pee Wee Herman

c. Geraldo Rivera

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:

a. The Smurfs

b. Davey Jones

c. The Little Mermaid

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:

a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd

b. The Supreme Court of Florida

c. Mr. Bean

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:

a. Enron

b. The Lutheran Church

c. The NFL

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:

a. Bonnie and Clyde

b. Captain Kangaroo

c. Billy Graham

d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

14. And now we can add: In 2009, 31 people wounded and 13 American Soldiers murdered on base at Fort Hood by a Major that was known as...

a: You guessed it - A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40.

Do you see a pattern here to justify profiling? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Nancy Pelosis, Gloria Aldreds and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves - if they have any such sense.

We can not allow the socialist transformation being brought on by the current administration to continue. Look at what it has done to Europe .

We all must stand together before it's too late and everything America stands for is lost.

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:

1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat

1990 - Elias James Corey

1994 - Yaser Arafat:

1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:

(zero)

Physics:

(zero)

Medicine:

1960 - Peter Brian Medawar

1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:

1910 - Paul Heyse

1927 - Henri Bergson

1958 - Boris Pasternak

1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon

1966 - Nelly Sachs

1976 - Saul Bellow

1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer

1981 - Elias Canetti

1987 - Joseph Brodsky

1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:

1911 - Alfred Fried

1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser

1968 - Rene Cassin

1973 - Henry Kissinger

1978 - Menachem Begin

1986 - Elie Wiesel

1994 - Shimon Peres

1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:

1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer

1906 - Henri Moissan

1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson

1908 - Gabriel Lippmann

1910 - Otto Wallach

1915 - Richard Willstaetter

1918 - Fritz Haber

1921 - Albert Einstein

1922 - Niels Bohr

1925 - James Franck

1925 - Gustav Hertz

1943 - Gustav Stern

1943 - George Charles de Hevesy

1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi

1952 - Felix Bloch

1954 - Max Born

1958 - Igor Tamm

1959 - Emilio Segre

1960 - Donald A. Glaser

1961 - Robert Hofstadter

1961 - Melvin Calvin

1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau

1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz

1965 - Richard Phil lips Feynman

1965 - Julian Schwinger

1969 - Murray Gell-Mann

1971 - Dennis Gabor

1972 - William Howard Stein

1973 - Brian David Josephson

1975 - Benjamin Mottleson

1976 - Burton Richter

1977 - Ilya Prigogine

1978 - Arno Allan Penzias

1978 - Peter L Kapitza

1979 - Stephen Weinberg

1979 - Sheldon Glashow

1979 - Herbert Charles Brown

1980 - Paul Berg

1980 - Walter Gilbert

1981 - Roald Hoffmann

1982 - Aaron Klug

1985 - Albert A. Hauptman

1985 - Jerome Karle

1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach

1988 - Robert Huber

1988 - Leon Lederman

1988 - Melvin Schwartz

1988 - Jack Steinberger

1989 - Sidney Altman

1990 - Jerome Friedman

1992 - Rudolph Marcus

1995 - Martin Perl

2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:

1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson

1971 - Simon Kuznets

1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow

1975 - Leonid Kantorovich

1976 - Milton Friedman

1978 - Herbert A. Simon

1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein

1985 - Franco Modigliani

1987 - Robert M. Solow

1990 - Harry Mark owitz

1990 - Merton Miller

1992 - Gary Becker

1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:

1908 - Elie Metchnikoff

1908 - Paul Erlich

1914 - Robert Barany

1922 - Otto Meyerhof

1930 - Karl Landsteiner

1931 - Otto Warburg

1936 - Otto Loewi

1944 - Joseph Erlanger

1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser

1945 - Ernst Boris Chain

1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller

1950 - Tadeus Reichstein

1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman

1953 - Hans Krebs

1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann

1958 - Joshua Lederberg

1959 - Arthur Kornberg

1964 - Konrad Bloch

1965 - Francois Jacob

1965 - Andre Lwoff

1967 - George Wald

1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg

1969 - Salvador Luria

1970 - Julius Axelrod

1970 - Sir Bernard Katz

1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman

1975 - Howard Martin Temin

1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg

1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow

1978 - Daniel Nathans

1980 - Baruj Benacerraf

1984 - Cesar Milstein

1985 - Michael Stuart Brown

1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein

1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]

1988 - Gertrude Elion

1989 - Harold Varmus

1991 - Erwin Neher

1991 - Bert Sakmann

1993 - Richard J. Roberts

1993 - Phil lip Sharp

1994 - Alfred Gilman

1995 - Edward B. Lewis

1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129!

The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it all:

'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel . Benjamin Netanyahu

General Eisenhower Warned Us

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way.

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States ?

Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.

"All I Have Seen Teaches Me To Trust The Creator For All I Have Not Seen". Ralph W. Emerson

Monday, November 15, 2010

State of Affairs for election fraud, voter bribery and voter intimidation in NVby Elicia Afton

I believe election fraud, voter bribery and voter intimidation has taken place and an investigation should occur.

To review Election Fraud first, we see the case in Boulder city with voter Joyce Ferrerra where the machines did not record her vote correctly for Sharron Angle during early voting. It was not an isolated incident because it happened to several voters within minutes of each other. 400 fraud investigators from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice were sent across 18 states, but unfortunately none were sent to NV amidst this news.

In my opinion those machines should have been seized and recalibrated at the first report of malfunctioning. However, the response from Larry Lomax, head of the registrar of voters in Clark County, said that Ferrerra’s claims were “patently false” and that a community with elderly citizens could have difficulty casting their ballot.

I looked into other cases where there have been problems with the electronic voting machines, and there are plenty of those cases. Voting Machines do malfunction! In this recent midterm it happened across the country. In North Carolina The New Bern Journal reported that the voting machine displayed a ballot with all democrats checked. It took the election staff 3 times to finally record the correct republican vote for the voter. In Dallas it was reported that a vote for Gov. Rick Perry was replaced with a straight ticket Green Party vote. This incident was recorded on video, although illegal to do so. The video was forced to be made private on you-tube. You-Tube “hacking democracy” and “black box voting” if you want to see other examples of malfunctioning voting machines. In cases such as this, it does not matter how precise or how short of time your finger lingers on the machine, the wrong vote records.

Going back to 2008 there was a huge voter fraud controversy in New Hampshire, where Hilary Clinton benefited from votes actually cast for Ron Paul in their open primary. The machines that they were using in this incident were owned by LHS Associates whose owner John Silvestro went to great lengths to deflect accusations the machines can be rigged. The case was sent to the New Hampshire legislature, where a hacking expert testified that the machines are wide open to fraud and specifically built to allow tampering; the case also revealed that convicted felons were running ballot printing operations. Should we not advocate for a case to be heard here in Nevada? I’m curious as to what we would be able to uncover. Voting machines like any computer can be rigged with a virus and hacked, as the case heard in the New Hampshire legislature proved.

In most cases, voting machines just require recalibration to make the system work again, which should have been done in Boulder City. But the fact Larry Lomax just denied there was a problem…is a problem. HMMMMM a case forming...possibly. The technicians that operated those electronic machines are the pro-Reid SEIU, the same union that was behind thousands of bogus voter registrations across the nation. “A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Clark County and SEIU Local 1107 puts the union in charge of servicing all voting machines. The agreement reads as follows:

The County hereby recognizes the Union as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining representative of the County employees assigned to the classifications listed in Appendix A who are eligible to be represented by the Union except as limited by Section 2 of this Article. The Union shall be notified of additions to the list of classifications (Exhibit A) within seven (7) days of posting for the position classification and shall receive 30 days advance notice of any deletions.”

Therefore, it’s not a huge leap to make the accusation the machines were tainted, it takes 10 minutes to hack a machine.

Don’t forget on election night the polls in Elko County didn’t close until 7:50 pm due to long lines and A power outage in Henderson briefly delayed voting at Schofield Elementary School earlier in the evening, after a vehicle hit a transformer at Eastern Avenue and the 215 Beltway. We didn’t hear the first results until the 9 pm hour. This sounds like a last chance effort to achieve a final tally above the margin of error for Reid.

Which I will also remind Sherman Fredrick, Las Vegas Review Journal Editor, of his promise made the Monday before the election at the Republican

Club Luncheon to file a complaint with the NV SoS if Reid won above the margin of error….no word on that yet.

Concerning alleged voter fraud it is not inconceivable that in the 12th hour of voting, massive groups of people, organized by the SEIU, as they are known to do, vote in the place of those who have not voted yet or vote in the place of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleading team illegally registered through Acorn.

It is easy enough to in NV where no ID is required to tell an election officer a false name and give a false signature. Fortunately, to make it easy for this scenario to take place a copy of what the voter signature looks like is directly next to where the voter is required to sign.

Curious as to all the complaints that have been filed with the NV SoS concerning Election Day fraud cases and voter intimidation, I contacted Michael Morely the NV EDO Legal/Litigation Director to ask what complaints the State Party is going to file or what have they already filed. As a poll watcher, trained by him I figured he would have the answers. However he replied “I apologize, any such inquiries should be directed to the state party. I am not authorized to make any official comments. I would point out, however, that as a matter of public record we filed numerous complaints and letters with the Secretary of State's office regarding the election and a separate complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, and aggressively pursued all instances of potential illegality or irregularity of which we were aware. “

Seeking guidance from the state party, Frank Ricotta of the CCRP party and said “We have made some plans at the county level and we have formed a committee to collect information and to perform some post election analysis.” And I was invited to attend the CCRP meeting Nov. 16. Perhaps the plan will be unveiled if our leaders will take our questions and suspicions to the courts. As of now, the CCRP is currently taking emails at for people to report any incidents of voter fraud at voterfraud@NVaction.com. To supplement this effort our friend Daxton Brown, author of “Harry: Money Mob and Influence” has also created the website LASVEGASSPOTLIGHT.COM, dedicated to posting incidents of voter fraud in NV, as opposed to just collect them. There is no site in NV where there is a website besides this one where all the complaints are listed. Assuredly there will be a new chapter in Daxton’s book concerning election fraud, bribery, and intimidation.

To continue my research of submitted voter complaints, Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote the first story of fraud on OCT 29, 2010 titled “GOP files complaint charging voting violations by Unions.” He could not tell me where all of the complaints to the SoS are listed. He could only recall 3 or 4 complaints filed by our party, as opposed to the “Numerous complaints that the EDO Director, Morely, claims to have filed.” Shouldn’t all complaints made with the SoS be made public? It’s like they are made and then vanish… Case in point, whatever happened to Dan Burdish’s case against our Sec. of State Ross Miller, who allowed Scott Ashjdan the Tea Party Candidate to run after failing to comply with candidate registration rules?

One report that I can speak about is one filed by Reno attorney David O’Mara on behalf of Babette Rutherford, a poll watcher who complained of the SEIU involvement at the polls, including unlawfully offering lunch to members as an incentive to vote. According to NVRS 293.700 (a person who bribes or uses any other corrupt means, directly or indirectly to influence..his/her vote..is guilty of category d felony)and 18 U.S.C 597..(whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure…to vote…shall be fined..or imprisoned)

There are also rules against Interference with Election and rules regarding Poll Watchers, which have both been violated in this election according to O’Mara. However, I think that his case of Voter Intimidation and Voter Bribery can be made stronger if some employees of the MGM and Harrah’s come forward and confirm the reports. Unfortunately there are no guards against retaliation against a Union Whistleblower, and thus no employees. Look at Gerrit Hale, former candidate for Clark County Assessor, who dared to run against the bosses chosen successor, Michele Schafe, and was fired from his position in the Assessor’s office.

The other complaint that made the news was Angle’s Voter Intimidation Complaint with the Justice Department. This is in regards to a series of emails that were discovered between Harrah’s VP of government relations, Jan Jones and an unnamed Reid Staffer, who promised to do anything to drive votes and that they need particular help in getting the ranks especially in housekeeping and B&F (whatever that is).

Here we see a case of voter intimidation outside the polls. We can practice our right to NOT vote just as well as our right to vote. To tell a worker that it will be devastating to your industry’s future if Reid is not elected, is a lie and it was circulated among the supervisors to tell their employees. This is coercion at the most basic level.

The most obvious reason we need an investigation is the huge gap between the polls and actual results. It was a 9 pt spread, which is above the margin of error, which is usually 4 pts. As reported by Scott Rasmussen, a great ground game on behalf of Reid is not enough to account for the 9 point spread. With the reports we have so far, I claim chicanery and it’s in the Nevada Supreme Court’s court to call the election before November 23.

Email to friendPrinter-friendlyVotes without voters - the notion seems like something from "The Twilight Zone." Yet this outcome, the result of a mysterious computer glitch, may have helped re-elect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, last week by a 50.2%-44.6% margin. Actually, the "mystery" is very likely the doing of a local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which nationwide provides votes, money and muscle for the Democratic Party. Critics are charging that voting machines throughout Clark County (Las Vegas), where about three-fourths of Nevada's population resides, were rigged to place check marks next to Reid's name before a person even had voted. County officials insist that no tampering occurred. But the possibility can't be dismissed, especially given that one of Reid's sons is county commission chairman.

The Service Employees, with around 2.2 million members and affiliates, has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in American politics. This union of public- and private-sector employees by now is an adjunct to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party; i.e., most of the party. It has good reason for assuming this role. SEIU leaders know that if its preferred candidates win, government at all levels likely grows. And that means more contracts, employees and dues for the union. Andrew Stern, who stepped down as Service Employees president this spring after 14 years, last year boasted his organization spent $60.7 million to get Barack Obama elected president. The union also spent an estimated $44 million in the most recent election cycle, almost all of it on Democrats. The union long has cultivated close relationships with another unofficial party appendage, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. Indeed, SEIU Locals 100 and 880 (the latter recently reorganized as SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana) were founded during the Eighties as ACORN projects.

At times it is difficult to determine where the Democratic Party ends and the union begins. The SEIU, having worked overtime for the party, has been rewarded with almost unlimited access to the current administration. Records show that Stern was the most frequent White House visitor last year, raising widespread suspicions that he'd violated federal lobbying statutes. President Obama's political director, Patrick Gaspard, had been a top operative for SEIU and a number of ACORN fronts. Few unions worked harder and longer to secure congressional support for Obama's initiatives, most crucially, the exhorbitant health care overhaul whose sleight-of-hand passage was co-engineered by Harry Reid.

The Service Employees doesn't just operate at the national level. It has built dedicated cadres of organizers and fundraisers in many states, Nevada, with its large hotel-casino workforce, among those states. During the recently concluded election cycle, the SEIU donated $500,000 to Patriot Majority PAC, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee formed in October 2009 by Democratic Party strategist Craig Varoga; the PAC in turn spent $1.3 million on Reid's Senate campaign.

But the Service Employees also may be supplying labor for Democrats in a rather insidious way. A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Clark County and SEIU Local 1107 puts the union in charge of servicing all voting machines. The agreement reads as follows:

The County hereby recognizes the Union as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining representative of the County employees assigned to the classifications listed in Appendix A who are eligible to be represented by the Union except as limited by Section 2 of this Article. The Union shall be notified of additions to the list of classifications (Exhibit A) within seven (7) days of posting for the position classification and shall receive 30 days advance notice of any deletions.

Page 75 of this agreement indicates "Voting Machine Technician" to be a classified SEIU position in Exhibit A. Although the CBA expired on June 30, 2010, it remains in force because of language in Article 43 which grants an indefinite year-to-year extension until one party deems it unworkable.

Given that SEIU Local 1107 technicians run Clark County voting machines, any glitches in the end must be the responsibility of these workers. And these glitches appear to have been no accident. In late October, during early balloting, for example, a number of voters in Boulder City (southeast of Las Vegas) complained Reid's name already was checked. According to one eyewitness, Joyce Ferrara, the problem was rampant. "Something's not right," she said. "One person, that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five-minute period of time - that's wrong."

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax doesn't see evidence of vote fraud. He cited high-sensitivity touch screens as the most likely explanation for any discrepancies between voter intent and result. He stated that it would have been impossible for voting machines to put a check mark next to a candidate's name without a voter's consent, adding that nobody had reported the problem to him or anyone else on his staff. Nevada SEIU spokesman Nick Di Archangel also dismissed the possibility of fraud. "The machines cannot be compromised," he assured Fox5Vegas.com in an e-mail. Yet such responses raise the issue of why Reid's opponent, Sharron Angle, didn't benefit from these apparent mishaps.

Angle's lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, was blunt about what she saw as the reason, adding a new charge as well. In a campaign fundraising e-mail she wrote:

Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright. As a result, we need to deploy literally dozens of election law attorneys and poll watchers to combat these tactics at a cost of nearly $80,000. That's over and above our current budget...Now, this week in Las Vegas, at our election hotline, we received reports that some teachers' union representatives were offering Starbucks cards to people to get them to vote for Harry Reid. It is even more disturbing and may be possible that they are using their influence and authority as educators to entice students on behalf of Reid.

Nevada isn't the only state where electronic voting "malfunctions" seemed to selectively afflict GOP candidates in 2010. Here's one account from North Carolina:

In North Carolina, an incident was reported in which a voter tried to vote a straight Republican ticket and instead the voting machine indicated that a straight Democratic ticket was voted.

Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine screen displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked. He cleared the screen and tried again with the same result, he said. Then he asked for and received help from election staff.

‘They pushed it twice and the same thing happened,' Laughinghouse said. ‘That was four times in a row. The fifth time they pushed it and the Republicans came up and I voted.'

Whether or not union members serviced voting machines in that state, the reality remains this: Electronic voting is less than tamper-proof. And that creates a window of opportunity for fraud.

What raises a cloud of suspicion over Harry Reid's victory by nearly six percentage points is that he actually had been the underdog. Four separate Rasmussen polls prior to the election had Angle ahead. Two weeks before the big day, she was up 50% to 47%. A week later, she'd extended her lead to 49%-45%. In other words, the pendulum had swung in Reid's favor by at least 10 points in the final week. That's a rather odd turn of events amid a Republican landslide.

It's noteworthy that Senator Reid's eldest son, Rory, serves as chairman of the Clark County board of commissioners and was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 governor's race, losing convincingly to Republican Brian Sandoval. One could argue, in devil's advocate fashion, that if Rory Reid couldn't rig his own victory, there is no way he could have done likewise on behalf of his father. It's a valid point, but it doesn't necessarily let Reid the Younger off the hook, who was behind in the polls by at least 20 percentage points. Sandoval wound up winning by 53.4% to 41.6%. A Rory Reid victory in the gubernatorial race would have so improbable that it might have raised too many suspicions for comfort, whereas Harry Reid, who had far more at stake, was close enough in his own race to make a rigged victory look legitimate.

Is this idle speculation? An investigation would be the only way to find out. Unfortunately, a recount is not likely possible. In addition to being highly vulnerable to hacker attacks that switch out memory chips (thus altering how votes are tallied), computerized voting leaves no audit trail to see who voted for whom. Moreover, Nevada's Sequoia AVC Edge touch-screen machines have a documented history of high vulnerability to errors and infiltration. And most egregiously, state voting officials in that state, like others, may have a habit of removing memory cards and hard drives not long after the polls close, thus eliminating evidence of voter intent. In federal elections, such a practice is against the law. The Retention of Voting Documentation Act requires retention for 22 months of "all records and papers, which came into their [election officials] relating to an application, registration, payment of a poll tax, or other act requisite to voting." If Clark County, Nevada has been less than punctilious about observing this statute, it might be a reflection of who's in charge.

A criminal investigation, then, appears the only way of getting at the truth. It wouldn't be a first for Nevada. A state probe of voter registration fraud in connection with the 2008 elections yielded evidence that dozens of ACORN-hired canvassers from a state prison release program had submitted hundreds of suspect, if not phony, registration cards. Former Las Vegas ACORN Field Director Christopher Edwards eventually pleaded guilty to two gross misdemeanor counts. Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, issued a post-election statement calling for a joint federal-state investigation of Harry Reid's recent Senate election:

It is positively outrageous that in Clark County, Nevada, the SEIU Local 1107, which supports Harry Reid, controls the ballot boxes by contract through their representation of the voting machine technicians. It is not surprising that Senator Harry Reid's name was automatically checked off on the ballot when individuals went to vote. The U.S. Attorney's Office, the Nevada State Attorney General, and the U.S. Marshals need to act now to ensure that the SEIU does not continue to compromise the integrity of ballots in Nevada, and anywhere else in the country.

What if an investigation turns up nothing? At the very least, Nevada and other electronic-voting states should go back to manual voting for the time being, and hire more poll watchers and attorneys. The monstrous Josef Stalin famously declared: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." In a perverse way, he was right. We're finding that out in Nevada.